On September 11, 1857, a band of Mormon militia, under a flag of truce, lured unarmed members of a party of emigrants from their fortified encampment and, with their Paiute allies, killed them. More than 120 men, women, and children perished in the slaughter.

American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church

On June 27, 1844, a mob stormed the jail in the dusty frontier town of Carthage, Illinois. Clamorous and angry, they were hunting down a man they saw as a grave threat to their otherwise quiet lives: The founding prophet of Mormonism, Joseph Smith. They wanted blood. At thirty-nine years old, Smith had already lived an outsized life. In addition to starting the Church of Latter-Day Saints and creating his own "Golden Bible" - the Book of Mormon - he had worked as a water-dowser and treasure hunter.

Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet

Brigham Young was a rough-hewn craftsman from New York whose impoverished and obscure life was electrified by the Mormon faith. He trudged around the United States and England to gain converts for Mormonism, spoke in spiritual tongues, married more than 50 women, and eventually transformed a barren desert into his vision of the Kingdom of God. While previous accounts of his life have been distorted by hagiography or polemical exposé, John Turner provides a fully realized portrait of a colossal figure in American religion, politics, and westward expansion.

In this first volume of his magisterial study of the foundations of Mormon thought and practice, Terryl L. Givens offers a sweeping account of Mormon belief from its founding to the present day. Situating the relatively new movement in the context of the Christian tradition, he reveals that Mormonism continues to change and grow.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre

In the Fall of 1857, 120 California-bound emigrants were killed in lonely Mountain Meadows in southern Utah; only 18 young children were spared. The men on the ground after the bloody deed took an oath that they would never mention the event again, either in public or in private. The leaders of the Mormon church also counseled silence. The first report, soon after the massacre, described it as an Indian onslaught at which a few white men were present, only one of whom, John D. Lee, was actually named.

Revelation, Resistance, and Mormon Polygamy: The Introduction and Implementation of the Principle, 1830-1853

In Revelation, Resistance, and Mormon Polygamy, historian Merina Smith explores the introduction of polygamy in Nauvoo, a development that unfolded amid scandal and resistance. Smith considers the ideological, historical, and even psychological elements of the process and captures the emotional and cultural detail of this exciting and volatile period in Mormon history.

The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life

"Whether by design or by chance," Terryl and Fiona Givens write, "we find ourselves in a universe filled with mystery. We encounter appealing arguments for a Divinity that is a childish projection, for prophets as scheming or deluded imposters, and for scripture as so much fabulous fiction. But there is also compelling evidence that a glorious Divinity presides over the cosmos, that His angels are strangers we have entertained unawares, and that His word and will are made manifest through a sacred canon that is never definitively closed."

The Polygamous Wives Writing Club: From the Diaries of Mormon Pioneer Women

Polygamous wives were participants in a controversial and very public religious practice that violated most 19th-century social and religious rules of a monogamous America. Harline considers the questions: Were these women content with their sacrifice? Did the benefits of polygamous marriage for the Mormons outweigh the human toll it required and the embarrassment it continues to bring?

Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows

The massacre at Mountain Meadows on September 11, 1857, was the single most violent attack on a wagon train in the 30-year history of the Oregon and California trails. Yet it has been all but forgotten. Will Bagley's Blood of the Prophets is an award-winning, riveting account of the attack on the Baker-Fancher wagon train by Mormons in the local militia and a few Paiute Indians.

The lectures herewith presented have been prepared in accordance with the request and appointment of the First Presidency of the Church. The greater number of the addresses were delivered before the Theology Class of the Church University; and, after the close of the class sessions, the lectures were continued before other Church organizations engaged in the study of theology. To meet the desire expressed by the Church authorities - that the lectures be published for use in the various educational institutions of the Church - the matter has been revised, and is now presented in this form.

Joseph Smith: A Prophet

Live in the period of 1830-1844. Feel the personal thoughts of Brewster Cabot who followed, loved, and suffered persecution with one proclaimed to be a prophet, Joseph Smith, the man who started The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Lectures on Faith

This special audiobook edition of the Lectures on Faith from Zion's Camp Books has been prepared especially with you in mind. It is narrated as a book, rather than with chapter and verse numbers as in the print edition. This will give you the greatest enjoyment as you listen to the words of the prophets and learn about faith.

Polygamy on the Pedernales: Lyman Wight's Mormon Village in Antebellum Texas

In the wake of Joseph Smith Jr.’s murder in 1844, his following splintered, and some allied themselves with a maverick Mormon apostle, Lyman Wight. Sometimes called the "Wild Ram of Texas," Wight took his splinter group to frontier Texas, a destination to which Smith, before his murder, had considered moving his followers, who were increasingly unwelcome in the Midwest. He had instructed Wight to take a small band of church members from Wisconsin to establish a Texas colony that would prepare the ground for a mass migration of the membership.

The Lost Book of Mormon: A Journey Through the Mythic Lands of Nephi, Zarahemla, and Kansas City, Missouri

Today The Book of Mormon, one of the most widely circulating works of American literature, continues to cause controversy - which is why most of us know very little about the story it tells. Avi Steinberg wants to change that. A fascinated nonbeliever, Steinberg spent a year and a half on a personal quest, traveling the path laid out by Joseph's epic.

The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith

In 1830, a young seer and sometime treasure hunter named Joseph Smith began organizing adherents into a new religious community that would come to be called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (and known informally as the Mormons). One of the nascent faith’s early initiates was a twenty-three-year-old Ohio farmer named Parley Pratt, the distant grandfather of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. In The Mormon People, religious historian Matthew Bowman peels back the curtain on more than 180 years of Mormon history and doctrine.

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West

In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year's westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped for a brutal winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most harrowing extremes of human survival.

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

At the core of this book is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a revelation from God commanding them to kill their blameless victims. Weaving the story of the Lafferty brothers and their fanatical brethren with a clear-eyed look at Mormonism's violent past, Krakauer examines the underbelly of the most successful homegrown faith in the United States, and finds a distinctly American brand of religious extremism.

Cult Insanity: A Memoir of Polygamy, Prophets, and Blood Atonement

In Cult Insanity, Spencer reveals the outrageous behavior of her brother-in-law Ervil---a self-proclaimed prophet who determined he was called to set the house of God in order---and how he terrorized their colony. Claiming to be God's avenger and to have a license to kill in the name of God, Ervil ordered the murders of friends and family members, eliminating all those who challenged his authority. Cult Insanity is a riveting, terrifying memoir of polygamist life under the tyranny of a madman.

Joseph Smith

The most important reformer and innovator in American religious history, Joseph Smith has remained a fascinating enigma to many, both inside and outside the Mormon Church he founded. Born in 1805, Smith grew up during the "Second Great Awakening", when secular tumult had spawned radical religious fervor and countless new sects. His contemplative nature and soaring imagination were nurtured in the close, loving family created by his deeply devout parents.

Publisher's Summary

On September 11, 1857, a band of Mormon militia, under a flag of truce, lured unarmed members of a party of emigrants from their fortified encampment and, with their Paiute allies, killed them. More than 120 men, women, and children perished in the slaughter.

Massacre at Mountain Meadows offers the most thoroughly researched account of the massacre ever written. Drawn from documents previously not available to scholars and a careful re-reading of traditional sources, this gripping narrative offers fascinating new insight into why Mormons settlers in isolated southern Utah deceived the emigrant party with a promise of safety and then killed the adults and all but seventeen of the youngest children. The book sheds light on factors contributing to the tragic event, including the war hysteria that overcame the Mormons after President James Buchanan dispatched federal troops to Utah Territory to put down a supposed rebellion, the suspicion and conflicts that polarized the perpetrators and victims, and the reminders of attacks on Mormons in earlier settlements in Missouri and Illinois. It also analyzes the influence of Brigham Young's rhetoric and military strategy during the infamous "Utah War" and the role of local Mormon militia leaders in enticing Paiute Indians to join in the attack. Throughout the book, the authors paint finely drawn portraits of the key players in the drama, their backgrounds, personalities, and roles in the unfolding story of misunderstanding, misinformation, indecision, and personal vendettas.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre stands as one of the darkest events in Mormon history. Neither a whitewash nor an expose, Massacre at Mountain Meadows provides the clearest and most accurate account of a key event in American religious history.

At least I got this on sale. This book was incredibly tedious and monotonous. Unlike other books on historical events, the authors seemed to make almost no attempt to make us care about the individuals involved. Contrast this book with "Desperate Passage", for example, which was about the events surrounding the Donner Party. In "Desperate Passage", we receive a lot of background on the individuals involved--why they moved West, who was in their family, what their personalities were like, etc. So when we got to the main drama of the story, we were fascinated by what happened to the characters we had come to invest in. In "Massacre at Mountain Meadows", we are given almost no reason to care about either the perpetrators or the victims of the massacre--although I do agree with the other review that says we are given more reasons to care about the perpetrators.

I will admit that I only listened to 3/4 of this book before giving up. I rarely give up before the end. But after multiple times of falling asleep in the second half and then going back to try to find my place, I finally realized that I had no obligation to torture myself any longer. If you enjoy reading history textbooks for fun, you might get something out of this dry recitation of times and places. If you prefer tales of history that bring the story alive, try "Desperate Passage" instead.

I was a bit nervous when the authors "confessed" they relied on the church for much of thier research. At least the first 3/4 of the book a felt a bit like I was being manipulated, but when the bad things start happening the authors do not try to pull punches. I agree with thier thesis about the event, but I do think they tried a bit hard to not point the finger at the church - no possiable justification for the actions is too small to be discussed (often repeatedly) and no proof of the dissappointment of church leaders int he action is to small to discuss. The pacing is VERY slow for much of the book with lots of degressions and information of little importance.

if the authors had been more interested in history than covering the Mormon church's back side this would have been a better read.

Would you ever listen to anything by the authors again?

No. These guys were hacks. They had one mission with this book: convince Mormon faithful that their leaders were as innocent as Mormon clergy tells them they are. It was ridiculous. The claim that they had access to church archives may have been true only because the church knew these guys could be trusted to ignore any incriminating evidence.

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